


Family Tradition

by Stratagem



Series: Chaos Kids [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Gen, mighty nein kids get mightily banned from libraries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 00:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21678370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stratagem/pseuds/Stratagem
Summary: Everyone gets banned from libraries, right? That's a trait that definitely got passed down to the Widojest kids.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast
Series: Chaos Kids [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1481873
Comments: 2
Kudos: 53





	Family Tradition

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: The Widojest kids are just following in their parents’ footsteps. Leo is fourteen, Bet is twelve (almost thirteen), and Theia is seven. PS- I’m making up everything about Yrrosa, canon will one day prove me so wrong. XD

For once, the house was silent, and Caleb was taking advantage of the exceedingly rare moment to sit in the den and drink a cup of tea with Frumpkin on his lap while reading. Jester was out with the kids on a mission to locate the town’s shopping district, park, local pastry shop, and library (the children were certain there was one, for what kind of town _didn’t_ have a library).

One of the wizards in Yrrosa, Resina, had sent Caleb a letter asking for assistance with translating recently unearthed ancient scrolls that just might have age-old spells in them. They had some kind enchantment on them that made them resistant to translation in general and dispelling magic on one of them had made the paper crumble, so it was possibly going to take a while to crack the magic on them for translation. The kids and Jester had been willing to change the plan from spending the summer in Zadash to potentially spending it all in Yrrosa on the promise that they would definitely stay in Nicodranas during the winter except for a weekend or two in New Molaesmyr and at least one visit apiece to Rosohna and Zadash. They weren’t a particularly stationary family, so moving back and forth was normal for them.

For their extended stay, Jester and Caleb had decided to rent a townhouse so they didn’t have to worry about renewing a mansion spell every day. There was enough room to accommodate guests thanks to the sure chance that someone else from the Mighty Nein would inevitably show up. It was a guarantee that Veth and Yeza with Della in tow would want to come visit on and off, using Caleb’s teleporting spell as a means of travel, but Beauregard and Yasha were potential visitors as well. Caduceus or Fjord were less likely, but everything was possible with the Mighty Nein.

Yrrosa was a decent-sized town but not one that they had spent time in, which meant Caleb’s family had been ready to leap into full-swing exploration mode since they had arrived yesterday afternoon. A rainstorm had stopped them from jumping into the town immediately, but it had cleared by mid-morning. Caleb hadn’t slept well the night before so he had elected to stay home so he didn’t drag the rest of them down. They had all put up a fuss about him missing out before he finally convinced them that he would, in fact, be all right alone.

It was late afternoon when the front door opened, and Caleb closed his book, prepared for an onslaught of excitement over cupcakes and books and places to while away the summer hours. Instead, there was a rush of whispering that he could only hear parts of.

“…you tell him?”

“…not me.”

“…Mom should. He’ll take it better from her…”

“Okay, you two, I’m not even in this, this is on…”

Finally one voice broke out over the others, and it belonged to a very angry Bet. “I’ll tell him, because it’s all Leo’s fault anyways.”

“Bet, I swear to anyone who’ll listen—”

Caleb and Jester’s middle child stormed into the library, chestnut hair like a reddish thundercloud around her head, dark blue eyes blazing. “Your magic son levitated a bookcase into another bookcase and now none of us can go back, _ever_ , and Mom won’t Send to Aunt Beau to come fix it because she thinks it’s hilarious, and I hate it!”

Caleb blinked. “What?”

Leo had been just a step behind Bet and stood behind her, his tail lashing about as he glared at her. “I was aiming at the book! I was aiming at the book, and then you shoved me—”

“It was a gentle shove! So gentle, and it wasn’t hard, I can’t believe you—”

“I can’t aim my spells if you’re shoving me!”

Caleb opened his mouth to ask a question, but he was drowned out by more yelling and raging accusations. He stood up, and Frumpkin winked off to the Feywilds to escape. Noise continued to explode from the kids, and it seemed like they were about to get into a wrestling match in the middle of the den. Jester stepped into the room, holding a box of pastries and looking like she was struggling to look neutral instead of highly amused. Their youngest came with her, holding onto the skirt of Jester’s dress with one hand and covering her face with the other. She peeked at Caleb from between her fingers then launched herself at the sofa, dropping onto it and hiding her face in a pillow.

“Hi, Caleb, want a muffin?” Jester asked, raising her voice to be heard above the kids.

“No, uh, I would really like less yelling and maybe more explanation. Is Theia all right?”

“She’s fine, just embarrassed. Kids, stop yell-ing,” Jester said, turning into an almost song. Bet and Leo dropped their fierce argument and settled for scowling at each other, both unwilling to face their mother’s candy-coated wrath. “And while you’re at it, tell your dad what happened at the library.”

“I already did,” Bet snapped and then looked at the ground, not meeting Jester’s eyes.

“No, you told him your version, which is an incredibly inaccurate account. I want that noted,” Leo said, crossing his arms, his tail nearly whacking into a side table by the chair Caleb had been sitting in earlier.

Caleb scrunched his face up for a moment then tilted his head slightly to the side. “I am sorry, but if I’m understanding this correctly…you were banned from the library?”

Bet threw her head back to glare at the ceiling while Leo frowned at the floor, and over on the couch, Theia tried to burrow deeper into the cushions.

“We just arrived here,” Caleb said, but then again, he wasn’t really in any position to judge them on that point. A grin from Jester told him that she was that she was remembering the same incidences in various libraries across Exandria. The Mighty Nein, especially the Chaos Crew, had been temporarily banned from so many, he wasn’t even sure if he remembered them all. Most of those bans had worn off…most of them.

“It was an accident,” Leo said. He rubbed the back of his neck and then scratched at the base of his curled left horn. “I was practicing that levitation spell we’ve been working on to reach a book on the top shelf, and Bet bumped into me—”

“I was encouraging you,” she hissed, but she cut herself off when Caleb put a hand on her arm and shook his head.

“She bumped me, and the spell sort of hit the bookcase instead. And, ah, well, you know, I was really surprised—”

Bet rolled her eyes. “He lost concentration and dropped the bookcase, and then it hit another bookcase.”

Caleb stared, wide-eyed. “Oh no.”

Leo looked haunted. “It was so bad.”

Bet dragged her hands down her face, the color draining beneath her freckles as she remembered the sight. “There were books everywhere, Papa. Everywhere. Cracked spines. Pages falling out. Some of them were torn in half. I’ve never…it was terrible.”

There was a moment of silence, like the three of them were spending a moment reflecting on the horror.

“Dramatic book nerds,” Jester said affectionately. She had sat down on the couch and started rubbing comforting circles on Theia’s back. “They were all sitting on the front steps when I got back from the one magic supply store in town,” she said to Caleb, “Only one, it’s crazy. This place is small!” 

“Theia shouldn’t be banned, she didn’t even do anything this time,” Leo grumbled.

“Only you should be banned, magic boy. Can’t you guys ask Beau to fix it? Like make them unban us?” Bet asked.

“I already told you, it’s not her kind of library,” Jester said, “I told you like a dozen times, and I think you’re willfully ignoring me. That, or you think Beau is some kind of library goddess with special unbanning powers.”

Bet shrugged like that idea wasn’t beyond the scope of possibility. “Didn’t she get you guys unbanned from a lot of libraries?”

“True,” Caleb said, “Being an Expositor has its benefits, but not all libraries answer to the Cobalt Soul, as you well know.”

“So how much trouble are we in?” Leo asked, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

Caleb and Jester shared a look, talking without words.

“Well, you already got banned from the library, and that’s a lot for you guys,” Jester said. “Like. A lot.”

Caleb reached out and put a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “It happens to all of us.”

It was Bet and Leo’s turn to share a look. Bet made a face. “No, it doesn’t. This is a Mighty Nein thing.”

“Yeah, I feel like this is some kind of Nein curse,” Leo said, waving two fingers back and forth between Jester and Caleb. “This is something we’ve inherited.”

Caleb fiddled with the loop of string that was ever-present around his wrist. “Well. Ah. That is— _ja_ …”

Jester looped an arm around Theia and dragged her out of the cushions. She looked absolutely miserable. Her free-floating hair was drifting low.

“Anyways, like I was saying, I don’t think you need extra punishing, that’s just excessive,” Jester said, looping an arm around Theia’s shoulders. “Right, Caleb?”

He nodded. “But I think it might be a good idea if we go back tomorrow and ask if we can help fix things, _ja_? Maybe with your mending spell, _liebling_?”

“Only if we go back to the bakery tomorrow. It’s super cute.”

“I think we can do that,” Caleb said, giving her a soft smile. He glanced at Leo and Bet. “But even though it’s a bad family habit, perhaps we try in the future to not get banned from libraries."

“We weren’t—”

“It wasn’t—”

Caleb held up his hands. “I said try. Just try.”

Leo nodded, and Bet gave a grouchy shrug.

Jester smirked. “Big tip, don’t take horses into libraries.”

“We know that one, Mom,” Leo said, almost smiling.

“I still can’t believe you did that,” Bet put in.

“And for basically no reason.”

“I think it was because we spent a lot of money on those horses, and we were reeeally poor back then,” Jester said, scrunching up her nose. She grinned. “They could’ve come in handy, and we weren’t banned for long.”

“Still, that was nuts,” Leo said.

Bet scoffed. “You didn’t even need them!”

Caleb walked over and sat down on the sofa beside Theia, sandwiching their youngest between him and Jester. He put a hand on Theia’s head, and she looked up at him, her lower lip quivering.

“The librarians hate us, and we broke a lot of books,” she said softly, “This is a very bad worst day.” She sighed, long and hard, like she was a century old instead of seven.

“Aw, it’ll get better,” Jester said, tucking one of Theia’s floating braids back behind her pointed ear, “There are muffins and cupcakes, and we have books in the Bücherei.” That was the extra dimensional pocket library that traveled with their family everywhere.

Caleb drew Theia into a hug, understanding the pain of being banned from a library on a deep spiritual level. “It is a very bad worst day. But tomorrow will be better. And we will eventually get the ban lifted.”

“Yeah, even if we have to raze this library to the ground,” Bet said sarcastically before shooting a frown at her brother. “Leo should be good for that.”

Leo glowered. Energy crackled around his fingers. “I’m about to show you some real damage here in a minute.”

Bet snorted. “Oh?”

“Hey, no battles in the house, we're just renting this one,” Jester said.

“Or, really, no battles at all,” Caleb added.

Jester grinned. “Yeah, that.”


End file.
